the plight of the space marines
by WARRIDER
Summary: This is just a short story I wrote while I was jumped up on painkillers with caffeine Just to be sure i was "jumped" on caffeine not painkillers . Feel free to review it but I'm afraid the chances of me reading it are slim, sorry but what ya gonna do to coin a phrase. I feel I should point out two things one I do not own anything as per usual with this site and two its my first


I was training in the simulator when I was summoned to my captain's cabin; I am 1st lieutenant Antheros (pronounced anth-ry-os) aboard the star ship Emperors Wrath of the Flesh Tearer's chapter on patrol around the eye of terror. As I approached my captain's cabin I could feel the ships engines powering up for a jump into warp space (a risky procedure at the best of times but here it was near suicide) I knocked on the highly decorated steel door I was summoned instantly and I cold tell just by the tone of my captains voice that something bad had happened somewhere in the galaxy. As I entered I was met by the sight of captain Nibdus in full power armour, a Chaplin in tactical dreadnought armour (terminator armour), the captain of the ship dressed only in his uniform and a very concerned expression on his face and the head techmarine and apocathary also in power armour. My captain greeted me quickly "Come in Antheros" I quickly came in and waited to be told what this was all about, the Chaplin was the first to start "Orks have attacked hive world Lanorra" he explained "we are the only space marines with in 10 sectors, so we have been ordered to rendezvous with two regiments of imperial guard to help take back the planet" I was shocked as there has only been one waagh near the planet before and the entire sector was heavily defended against the ever present chaos threat. "Where are the regiments from?" I asked my captain answered slowly "One's the Armageddon steel legions the other is the Mordian iron guard, so there not ideal for the terrain but there better than nothing and a support fleet is being assembled at the moment and should contain another three regiments from Athonia, Krieg and Cadia". The apothecary continued "as well as two star ships from the imperial fist chapter". I was puzzled by the amount of troops needed but before I could question them my captain began speaking again "This is why I am giving you what you requested, a squad of your own. They're only novices but that's all I could do. We will arrive at Lanorra in one week I suggest you use this time to get to know your squad, arm them and train with them. Good luck marine". I bade my thanks to my captain who I had fought side by side so many times before and set about finding my first squad.

I found them in the armoury selecting their weapons for training, as I approached them all the talking suddenly ceased it was good to see they had respect for their superiors. There were eight in total including one apocathary and two devastators. I selected each of there weapons personally and handed it to them, to three of them I gave one chain sword, a bolter and a bolt pistol each to one I gave a plasma gun to add some hitting power to the squad, a chain sword and a bolt pistol to the two devastators I gave them each one heavy bolter and combat knife I gave the apocathary a bolt pistol and chain sword and for my sergeant I gave a stalker bolter and power fist and for my self I picked out a plasma pistol, kraken bolter and power axe. Once the weapons were picked I set about the task of finding out how much each novice new about the weapons and equipment, after several hours I had learnt that each recruit new how all the weapons and equipment worked and how to operate them but on top of that they knew what happened (so they new a bolter shell is self propelled and explodes on contact) we used the next six days training in basic tactics and working together. By the time we got to the rendezvous I was beginning to wonder whether leading a team of novices into the height of a waagh was a good idea and was about to go and see my captain about it when I remembered that they were space marine genetically engineered super soldiers capable of ripping a normal man in two. However when we arrived at Lanorra I felt calm about the upcoming struggle unfortunately by the looks on the faces of my squad they weren't so I decided to try my hand at inspirational speaking using the speech my captain had used when I was a novice "you will all have the honour of going into battle as space marines, as ultramarines. We are the ultramarines, the sons of Guilliman. Whilst we draw breath, we stand. Whilst we stand, we fight. Whilst we fight, we prevail. Whilst we prevail we live and whilst we live…" at this point all the recruits shouted the last bit at the same time captain Nibdus walked by and smirked. "we shall know no fear!" roared the novices that would have a daemon run as we climbed in side our designated drop pod and prepared to plummet to the surface and victory.

Half an hour later I wished I had stayed in the ship, an Ork rok had crashed into our pod and completely destroyed the guidance system causing us to crash five miles from target and know hundreds of Orks stood in our way. Just then there was a massive crash and ten Orks came charging towards my squad, I issued the command to fire but everyone already had. Even as the last Ork was killed twenty more came charging out of the same hole the others had made I knew more were on there way so I ordered my squad to retreat and let the pods automatic turret deal with the Orks as we made our way along a trench system which had obviously been made by the plants garrison (which were now lining the trenches, most were in pieces hacked to pieces by the Orks a wild killing frenzy) we found a servo skull with a recorded message one of the planets garrison, I played it to try and figure out where if any places of safety. The servo skull responded and played the message "Personal log of Private Anthony Reed. Planet: Lanorra. Message: the Orks are attacking, their roks are destroying the hives, any survivors are killed by boyz before anyone can get to them we've evacuated everyone we can to Hab-block 194 and have defended it but everywhere else we're losing ground faster than a man can run. The hospitals are over flowing. Word has come that help is a week away but in that time no one will be left…". After the recording had finished a dark silence hung around only broken by an Orks shouting, "so what do we do now?" asked one of the recruits, I turned to him and said " we are not going to give up we are going to follow orders and get to our target is that clear recruit" he was taken back by this but managed to nod as over 50 Orks charged around the corner axes whirling, in a single motion the horde let out their war cry of "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH". My hand was up and firing before I even gave the order which wasn't needed, ten Orks were dead before they even finished shouting another five fell in quick succession. It was then when I decided to launch a counter charge the Orks were two hundred meters and closing fast when I charged towards them with three others my power axe in one hand plasma pistol in the other. One hundred meters then fifty meters then twenty in the next instance we collided as I hit the first Ork I felt it explode in a cloud of red gore, then my axe was up and on the way down. On the first stroke an Ork was cut in two in the next three two Orks fell to my blade, I then fired two shots of molten plasma at the nearest Ork one missed and went trailing passed him hitting another dead in the chest he fell over but got up again and got stuck in, the other hit the original Ork in the head causing it to explode. I looked up to see how the recruits were getting on but all I could see was a red mist from the Orks ripped in half by the power of the chain swords and all I could hear was the explosions from the bolter shells the five other recruits were firing and the roaring of the chain swords as they ripped and cut at the few Orks that dared challenge the might of the Imperium of man. After the surviving Orks had fled my squad and I continued to our objective to contact our forces. At every corner more Orks charged and each time they beaten back with bolter and chain sword, plasma gun and power axe.

We finally reached our objective and found an imperial guard radio which the sergeant used to contact captain Nibdus and receive our next objective, whilst he was doing that I looked around the abandoned imperial guard outpost and found another servo skull surprisingly by the same person dated the next day the recording was damaged but it played most of it without to much problem "Personal log of Private Anthony Reed. Planet: Lanorra. Message: the Ork advance is too much were losing ground at the same rate as men…we're falling back to…194 this is the last outpost to be evacuated "here they come" "look out" "no don't kill me" I've got to go there here over a thousand "fall back, retreat, run for your lives"… they moved off thank the Emperor but they will be back so we falling back…" by this point the sergeant had received that the captain had encountered heavy resistance and needed assistance so we should back him up. So we jogged in the direction we were told to go always being attacked by Orks. Slowing us down wasting our ammo. When we reached the coordinates there was nothing there just roads and the remains of a hive that had been toppled by a rok I was suspicious it wasn't like the captain to ask for assistance even if he needed it and certainly not when he didn't, It was at this point five nobs burst out of various hiding places and charged towards us at the same time seven tank-busterz came out of the downed hive and immediately fired all they had at us. All but one rokits corkscrewed through the air completely missing my squad the other one hit the apocathary square in the chest but failed to go off so he picked it up and tossed it like a grenade at the closest nob where it got lodged between him and his makeshift amour. The apocathary then took careful aim with his pistol and pulled the trigger, the nob instantly turned into a red mist that floated away on the breeze. Meanwhile the rest of the squad had been trying to bring down the other nobs I new from experience that an assault on them would be less than useless and if it had not been for captain Nibdus's training my head would have just anther trophy for another Ork. Using the plasma gun we managed to kill three more but the last one managed to get close enough to ram into the sergeant sending him flying into a wall where he lay dazed. I ordered the devastators to kill the rokit boyz while me and the remainder of the squad circled the nob, always staying just out of reach, always attacking when his back was turned to us until at last I could stick my power axe in his side, he then roared and tried to lash out but I wrenched my axe in his head and kicked him off before checking the sergeants condition. He was only dazed so we waited until he recovered and continued our search for the missing captain.

We saw a large group of gretchin carrying ammo boxes so we sprinted after them as they were carrying boxes they didn't notice us until it was far too late. The fight was short and pitifully unfair nearly all the gretchin were unarmed and the ones that were were the first to go the apocathary grabbed the last armed one as it reached up to stab his knee and using his power fist and with the crunching of bones rolled the remains into a ball no bigger than a imperial guard helmet and cast it to one side bowling over another gretchin. After that the remaining gretchin ran off one of the recruits was about to open fire with his bolter when I told the squad to follow them. We followed them along an ally then out on to a wide road until eventually I got bored and shot them, it was then we realised we hadn't got a clue where we were. We looked around for any clue to where we might be and the radio was broken from the sergeants run in with the nob so no help from the other marines. After ten minuets three rokit boyz and two shoota boyz came round the corner took one look at us and ran for cover, two of the rokit boyz didn't make it in time and a hail of bolter fire exploded into them ripping apart their bodies. The last rokit boy fired his rokit, I charged towards him dived and rolled underneath the rokit then I was up and firing my plasma pistol a fast as it would allow me to straight at the offending Ork at the same time my squad was killing the shoota boyz. Suddenly there was a crackling of energy and the warbosses pet weird boy was standing there on all three of his feet along side thirty boys and the warboss himself. The warboss roared and leapt forward my squad had already regrouped behind me and were readying there weapons when the warboss spoke "HA HA HA HA look wat we've got ere, more humies to kill. I'll rip your guts right out of your throat, get em boyz" he roared. His boyz did not waste any time in obliging. As they charged screaming as loud as they could their war cry I was staring at the warboss or rather I was staring at the skulls on spikes on his back or rather captain Nibdus's head on a spike. I don't know what happened next I saw red, my blood boiled and the deep flaw of our chapter. I through myself at the approaching Orks with an anger that made the maddened fury of their race look like a temper tantrum all the while ignoring the calls from my squad, all the while heading straight for the war boss. The next thing I know is I have broken free from the boyz and a charging straight at the giant Ork that killed my battle brother and captain and my fury grows stronger. As I reach the Ork I swing my power axe right at the fiends head but it moves I go stumbling forward like a new born lamb then it grabs hold of me with its huge power claw and lifts me high above the ground and squeezes.

Suddenly two squads of terminators with heavy weapons teleport onto the battle field at the same time a drop pod plummets out of the sky, the doors open and a huge dreadnought appears in the door it charges towards the warboss who drops me and faces up to this newest threat just as the dreadnought reaches it and does to it what it did to me. With a scream the warboss hits the dreadnought causing it to weaken its grip on the warboss as it slips free and yells to any nearby Orks to come to the fight. I feel the strength start to return to me as thousands upon thousands of Orks charge towards the fight, as the warboss cackles I feel my rage surge back and with it my strength I stand up with my power axe raised behind the warbosses head and swung it down hard decapitating the warboss in one action in front of a million Orks. There was a deathly silence as picked up the warbosses still cursing head and held it aloft for all the Orks to see, the head spat and cursed for another three minuets until its brain finally conceded that it was dead. Then the screaming started every single Ork screamed and fled at the same time the space marines opened fire again. Only the weird boy stood firm as he started chanting a spell, he finished and promptly blew up thanks to the grenade from the sergeant all that was left was some pinkish red light that shot off after the Orks. Thirty seconds later a huge explosion tore through the remains of the hives and was replaced with an ominous green glow that lit up the sky despite the twin suns lighting the sky. I looked around in horror at the scene of destruction surrounding me: the dreadnought stomping around, my squad looking forlorn and trying to regroup whilst the terminator squads professionally regrouped and contacted the Emperors Wrath and informed them of the fate of captain Nibdus.

_(Start of log entry)_

The green glow is getting stronger there is no doubt know that something is coming but there is no visuals yet the support fleet is still two weeks away so the ultramarines are having to stay and wait for whatever it is to emerge and engage it if necessary I have uncovered two more servo skulls belonging to the guardsmen one was damaged beyond repair the other was this "Personal log of Private Anthony Reed. Planet: Lanorra. Message: The Orks, the Orks broke into the hospital they didn't even use there weapons they just ripped the patients to pieces using their bare hands. The guards were over whelmed immediately; you could hear the screams for miles the Orks seem to be avoiding an area of comm interference, that is we as think all the scouts we have sent haven't come back and we can't contact them because of the interference. Are well one day till the fleet arrives, one more day of battle"

_(End of log entry)_

I wish I shared his optimism, the imperial guard regiments have contained the remainder of the Ork threat but the threat of the green glow remains unabated as does the comms interference which is still being investigated. It's been two days and the glow has got brighter and the comm interference has moved towards us, I'm still with my squad, the dreadnought and the two terminator squads have stayed with us due to the green glow and there is safety in numbers. Suddenly there was a marching rhythm of metal on tarmac and it was getting closer, I rallied my squads whilst shouting a warning towards the sound, everyone listened for a reply but all there was was the rhythm speeding up towards us. Then we saw them, thin skeletal warriors holding sparking green energy weapons, their eyes glowed red as they spotted us they took another synchronized step and opened fire. One of my squad was hit in chest his ceramite amour ripped apart, as if in answer we all opened fire with our weapons bolter shell exploding the skeletal warriors in under five minuets all six of the necrons were in pieces but we lost brother Marcus. It is the first man I've lost from my squad "do not give into grief brothers turn your thoughts to vengeance" I shouted to the remaining seven members of my squad just as the remains of the necrons were reassembling themselves.


End file.
